In a digital world where business is open 24/7, appearing calm and collected from the outside isn’t always simple. These marketing apps can reduce time and stress almost instantly, to keep your brand sharp around the clock. The added upside is that almost all of them are free! 1. Buffer for social media scheduling. If you juggle multiple social media accounts, jumping into each individual one to post can take all day. Buffer lets you schedule posts in every account like Facebook and Twitter. This means you can set and forget, and analyse their performance in a single clear snapshot. Social media marketing or management is a sizeable area you can automate each month to save hours. And thanks to apps like Buffer, you will never miss what your social interactions look like. Just like Google Analytics lets you track and report website traffic, it’s vital to have a way to effectively track social media. 2. Slack for communication. The last thing you want is extra emails! Slack lets you direct message your team, send and receive files and arrange and set away conversations. The beauty of Slack is it keeps work separate from your social messaging apps, making it easier to shut off at the end of the day (especially if you switch notifications off). Slack is excellent at keeping everyone in the loop so your team can collaborate without missing a thing. 3. Skype for video chat. Skype is one of several tools our content marketing agency uses to communicate with clients who aren’t local, or are temporarily overseas. 4. Lightroom CC for a cohesive Instagram feed....
Want to know how to build an email marketing list, and why you should? Successful marketing is a mix of so many things combined, but if your email list isn’t way up there in terms of priority, you should reconsider. What is an email marketing list? An email list, or an electronic mailing list, is a database of subscribers who’ve signed up to receive email content from you. Under the Spam Act 2003, there are three rules which email marketers must stick to: Consent from the recipient to opt-in, Identification of the sender; and A clearly visible option to unsubscribe in each email. Advantages of email marketing Before you ask why email lists are so critical, consider this statistic from Campaign Monitor. The current organic reach of a Facebook Page post is around 2%. In comparison, email reaches 90% of its intended recipients. In 2018, Facebook started featuring less pages and changed its feed to interaction-based curation. Posts attracting comments, shares and reactions are more likely to show up. Yet the catch is that fewer followers seeing posts equals less visibility and interaction. The fact is, it’s harder and harder for business owners to reach their market on social media. This is why you shouldn’t just focus your efforts there. Email in comparison is a direct way to reach your market without the impact of algorithms or social clutter. If this reason alone isn’t compelling enough to place email at the top of your list, consider this statistic from Hubspot. Email is 40 times more effective at customer acquisition than Facebook and Twitter combined. While social media isn’t a place...
As 2019 gets into full swing, it’s time to refocus your content marketing efforts in order to expand your brand reach. Sure, you’re probably aware of the basic digital marketing techniques – and perhaps you’ve even mastered them. But that doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. Rather, you need to investigate what’s new in the digital world and use those innovative tools to speak to new audiences. Getting the basics right If you’re just starting out or need a refresher on how to market your business in the digital age, it’s important to master the basics first. Luckily you don’t have to go it alone – there are lots of free marketing tools that can make your life easier. That being said, you will need to understand the essentials in order to take full advantage of online marketing. For starters, get acquainted with: Search engine optimisation (SEO) Content creation Inbound and social media marketing Google AdWords Automation tools Press releases Digital launches These are just a handful of the most common marketing tools and tactics. So rather than taking a scatter gun approach, test a range of different methods, find what works best for your brand, and build your expertise in a few different areas. Here are five to consider. Tip #1 – Schedule Instagram Stories Every business worth its salt should be tapping into social media. These communication hubs are no longer just places where people upload photos and catch up with old friends – they are an absolute goldmine for businesses with the marketing nous to capture their audience’s attention. Instagram’s popularity has skyrocketed in...
Have you ever clicked off a video because the presenter just seemed too fidgety? Too wooden? Too arrogant? Too timid? Video presentation is a great skill to learn, especially if you’re an executive or a business owner. Your manner, how you speak and how you dress are examined minutely, much more so than in real life. That’s because viewers are accustomed to watching professional actors and TV presenters, so they have high expectations of anyone who appears on their smartphone or TV screens. Whether you’re creating your videos for content marketing or training purposes, here are 4 tips to help you become a confident presenter. You are what you wear First impressions count for a lot, and are based on appearance. Even before you open your mouth, some people have made up their minds about you. The trick is to simply be yourself. Wear what you would normally wear when meeting with a client, not what you would wear to a special occasion. If the head of a not-for-profit organisation appears in a Chanel suit and pearl necklace, it might raise questions about her organisation’s priorities. (If you’re the editor of Vogue, it’s a different story.) Avoid wearing fabric with tight patterns, especially stripes and checks. Through the magic of television, these can cause a weird optical effect called a moiré pattern, where the fabric appears to ripple when you move. Don’t buy anything new for the video presentation – wear something familiar. You don’t want to discover that your new jacket is too tight around the chest just as you step in front of the camera. Speaking tips...
Business owners can no longer ignore the need to have a user-friendly, optimised website, and quality content – at least, not if they want to convert website visitors into customers and remain competitive. Yet every year we hear about startups failing to gain traction despite an innovative product and strong financial backing. And major corporations aren’t immune either. After failing to leverage the power of e-commerce in its early days, it was only last year that stuttering Toys ‘R’ Us announced a plan to revamp its website – part of a $100 million e-commerce strategy. But you might remember how that panned out. For many businesses, the website is often the first interaction a prospective client has with the brand. And it doesn’t matter what you sell – B2B or B2C, products or services – your ultimate goal is to convert the ‘potentials’ visiting your website into customers. If you aren’t converting visitors into customers, or views to sales, asking why should be a priority. Could it be something as simple as… You’re attracting (or targeting) the wrong audience This could be for any number of reasons. Does your website address issues more likely to interest small business, when your ideal clients are medium and large businesses? Are you building a young Instagram and Snapchat audience when your offering is more attractive to baby boomers? Setting up Google Analytics properly can provide valuable insights on your website visitors – their age, location, how they found your site, how long they stayed, the number of pages they visited. From there you can tweak your content or reconsider publishing platforms to...
There’s now a plethora of online tools out there that can make running your business and your content marketing and promotion efforts so much easier. Best of all, many of these offer free versions, or free trials on their paid options. They can be very handy for businesses without the budget to outsource to a content marketing agency. In pre-internet days, content marketing was often an expensive exercise, involving printed brochures and catalogues, direct selling, or TV, radio and print advertising. It was also largely hard to measure, which meant it could be very hit-and-miss. American department store pioneer John Wanamaker, who is credited with printing the first copyright store advertisement in 1874, is famously quoted as saying that half of his advertising spend was wasted, but he wasn’t sure which half! Some of the tools we’ve singled out not only make content marketing easier and cheaper, but infinitely more measurable, so you can avoid wasting time, money and effort on content strategies that aren’t working. Read on to find out more about 10 free tools you should consider using in your business. GoSpaces – free e-commerce website building Shopify’s GoSpaces app enables fledgling e-commerce businesses to build an online store for free. Once you join up, you are provided with a generic website template which you can alter to suit your business by adding your own content, images, and products. The platform also comes with multilingual (up to 20 languages) and multi-currency support, and a shopping cart support service. It is free to set up and use until you reach sales of $50 per month, after which there...
